Otis College LibGuides: Birth of the Modern: DATABASES

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Search Individual Databases

ArtSource + OmniFile This link opens in a new window
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Full-text articles from 630 art and design magazines, 220 books, and 63,0000 images + 3,100 multidisciplinary periodicals.
ProQuest Research Library This link opens in a new window
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General reference multidisciplinary. Full text with graphics. Overall dates of coverage: 1971 - present. Total titles covered: 2,600+.
JSTOR This link opens in a new window
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Expanded access is now permanent. Access over 54,000 books and 2,600 journals from scholarly publishers across the fields of literature, music, film studies, folklore, performing arts, religion, art and architecture, and more.
ProQuest Ebook Central This link opens in a new window
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More than 230,000 full-text searchable books aimed at undergraduates. With citation assistance. Optional: You can set up a personal account.
Gale in Context: Opposing Viewpoints This link opens in a new window
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For information on various sides of social issues. Includes pro/con viewpoints, reference articles, interactive maps, infographics, and more. TOPIC FINDER
Slavery in America and the World: History, Culture & Law This link opens in a new window
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Part of the HeinOnline Social Justice Suite. Brings together all essential legal materials on slavery in the United States and the English-speaking world. This includes every statute passed by every colony and state on slavery, every federal statute dealing with slavery, and all reported state and federal cases on slavery.
OtisDID This link opens in a new window
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UPGRADED MARCH 2020: Otis Digital Image Database (OtisDID) for teaching and learning. Focus is on art and design history. (Otis Community only)

Primary Sources

If you find something written in the period you are studying, it may qualify as a primary source. Here are some sources for magazines, advertisements, film, and historical images.

VOGUE Archive This link opens in a new window
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Vogue is perfect for historical research because it has every issue completely available going back to the late 1800s, including ads, articles, etc. All searchable by key word and date range. This amounts to PRIMARY sources. When off campus, login is required.
Digital Public Library of America This link opens in a new window
The Digital Public Library of America brings together the riches of America’s libraries, archives, and museums, and makes them freely available to the world. Many books and images available.

Ad*Access Project
The Ad*Access Project, funded by the Duke Endowment "Library 2000" Fund, presents images and database information for over 7,000 advertisements printed in U.S. and Canadian newspapers and magazines between 1911 and 1955.
British Pathé
85,000 newsreels from 1896-1976 created by British Pathé available on YouTube
Built in America
The Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS), Historic American Engineering Record (HAER) and Historic American Landscapes Survey (HALS) from the Prints and Photographs Division of the Library of Congress, and part of American Memory.
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Historic American Buildings Survey/Historic American Engineering Record/Historic American Landscapes Survey, 1933-Present
Life Photo Archive
A digital collection of millions of photographs from LIFE magazine from 1750s to today.
Photogrammar
Search photographs from the Farm Services Administration (FSA-OWI) that are housed in the Library of Congress.
Screen Archive Fashion
Thematic guide to 1920s-1930s UK fashion and dress via film archive

Art in Theory: 1815-1900
Call Number: REF N6450 A779 1998
ISBN: 0631200657
Publication Date: 1998
Art in Theory 1815-1900 provides the most wide-ranging and comprehensive collection of documents ever assembled on nineteenth-century theories of art.
Art in Theory, 1900-2000
Call Number: REF N6490 A7167 2002
ISBN: 0631227075
Publication Date: 2002
Popular anthology of twentieth-century art theoretical texts.

Los Angeles-area Collections and Museums

Many museums are opening their digital images for research on their web sites. Here are some local collections that are easy to search.

Autry Museum of the American West
Includes records and images for over 50,000 items
The Broad Collection
Over 2,000 images of their collection
The Getty Museum
Nearly 100,000 images freely available for use.
Huntington Art Collections
There is a separate search for the Huntington Digital Library
Japanese American National Museum (JANM)
Collection of over 60,000 unique artifacts, documents, and photographs
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Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA)
Documents their collection, including over 22,000 images in the public domain
Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA LA)
Browse their collections as well as their exhibition archive.
Norton Simon Museum
Over 4,000 images of European masterworks and South and Southeast Asian art

Other Museums

Many museums are opening their digital images for research on their web sites. Here are some of the most innovative collection searches.

Ultimate Guide to Virtual Museum Resources, E-Learning, and Online Collections
Created by the Museum Computer Network (MCN) in March 2020 in response to COVID-19. Contains links to many of the resources on this page.
American Archive of Public Broadcasting
Joint venture between the Library of Congress and WGBH in Boston.
Cooper Hewitt Design Museum
Fantastic place to search for images. Most images not available for reuse, but a great place to explore ideas. Can search on many terms, including color
Metropolitan Museum of Art
Over 215,000 images in the public domain from their collection.
Museum of Modern Art (MoMA)
Over 77,000 works available from their collection of 200,000 objects
MoMA Through Time
Timeline showing the history of the Museum of Modern Art as told by objects in its collections.
Rijksmuseum
Over 200,000 images available for use. Some of the images are not available, due to copyright restrictions.
Smithsonian Collections Search Center
Search over 13.5 million records of museum objects, archives and library materials including more than 3.1 million online images, audio & videos and blog posts
Victoria and Albert Museum
Online access to over a million catalog records and over half a million images of objects in their collections

Birth of the Modern

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Primary Sources

Los Angeles-area Collections and Museums

Other Museums